A moose that was buried upside down in a pile of snow last week near Vanderhoof, B.C. and rescued by logging truck driver Wayne Rowley, is shown in a handout photo.Wayne Rowley / Handout / THE CANADIAN PRESS

VANDERHOOF, B.C. — A logging truck driver in British Columbia was taken by surprise when he saw four legs sticking out of the snow off the side of a road.

Wayne Rowley, 54, said he was driving down a forest service road near Vanderhoof last Thursday when what appeared to be a set of moose’s legs in the snow caught his eye.

He pulled over to find a calf buried upside down in the snow and at first, Rowley said he thought it was dead.

“It lifted its head and looked and me and I thought, ‘Oh, I guess I’ve got to dig you out of here’,” he said.

The region had just received a dump of about a metre of snow, Rowley said.

He grabbed a shovel and put a rope around the moose’s neck to keep it still while he dug it out.

“You’ve got be careful with moose because they’ll kick you,” he said.

The animal was shivering and Rowley suspected it may have been going into hypothermia.

He called a colleague who had been driving ahead of him and failed to notice the moose to help him get the animal back on its feet.

Once it was right-side up again, he said the moose appeared a bit stunned.

“He just kind of shook himself and he put his ears forward and then he put his ears back.”

Rowley said he’s over six feet tall and the moose, although young, was about as tall as him.

He freed the rope from the moose’s neck and after a moment, it walked onto the road and “away he went,” Rowley said.

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